Word of the Week: Stable Bottom

The Word of the Week comes from the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens or encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online “resistance discourse,” used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.

Homophone of “stability” (wěndìng 稳定), a pretext for censorship and control.

Starting with former president Hu Jintao, the Communist Party has gone to great lengths to “maintain stability” domestically. Using this rationale, protests are squelched, political dissidents controlled, and media censored.

Netizens joke that the only things “maintaining stability” are the seats of the leadership on the throne of power. “If you want social stability,” a netizen once wrote, “officials can’t have ‘stable bottoms'” (要想社会稳定，官员不能“稳腚”).